Overview

Class Central Tips

In this course you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and build more productive habits. As preparation for these tasks, Professor Laurie Santos reveals misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us change. You will ultimately be prepared to successfully incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life.

THE SCIENCE OF WELL BEING WAS PRODUCED IN PART DUE TO THE GENEROUS FUNDING OF THE DAVID F. SWENSEN FUND FOR INNOVATION IN TEACHING.

Syllabus

Introduction
-Why take this course?

Misconceptions About Happiness
-What do we think will make us happy?

Why Our Expectations are so Bad
-Why do we mispredict what makes us happy?

How Can We Overcome Our Biases
-How we counteract our annoying features of the mind?

Stuff that Really Makes Us Happy
-What can we do to improve our happiness?

Putting Strategies into Practice
-How can we intentionally put these strategies into practice and build healthier habits?

Start Your Final Rewirement Challenge
-What rewirement will you commit to for the next 4 weeks?

Continue Your Rewirement Challenge
-How can you rely on others to help you change your behaviors?

Continue Your Rewirement Challenge
-How can you design your environment to help you change your behaviors?

Submit Your Final Assignment
-What mindset can you have to appreciate your progress so far and continue your progress beyond the course?

Reviews
for Coursera's The Science of Well-Being

5.0Based on
7 reviews

Adamcompleted this course, spending 3 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.

Great course which I find myself suggesting to many friends because of it's positive impact on my own life.

The course is a series of lectures with slides detailing specific psychological studies and their main points which are relevant for a every day people in every day life. The course has a big focus on practicing habits which have been shown to increase your happiness. The idea is to not only understand the science, but give the tools and the structure to try them out so that you can help yourself feel better. There are many different habits and practical techniques covered, so there's something for everyone. At the end of the course, I feel more aware with how my actions impact my happiness and have already gotten a few habits down so that I just feel better overall. I'm grateful things like this exist!

Such an important topic and yet not well known or given the importance it should get. Money and the things we believe will make us complete and therefore happy are not really the key to being discover happiness..

This course will really open your mind and will allow you to see that you can be happy right now without having to wait to be rich, or to have the things that you may think will make you happy. This psychology based class, makes sense, it’s clear and easy to understand for any level and the best part, it’s free!!! You can take it simply by signing up! Time worth spent!

by
Pooncompleted this course and found the course difficulty to be medium.

The course introduces you with some basic ideas of positive psychology. You are introduced in the knowledge in the first 6th weeks so it will be more cramped. The last 4 weeks require you to do a rewirement challenge and is more relaxed.

I learn something in this course and would like to dig deeper in the subject. The target of audience is students but the concept is suitable to adult.

It really makes you think about what happiness means to most people and especially to you. Through week 1 to 10 you get video’s of a yale class, and it makes you feel like you’re sitting right there with them. The teacher is great and inspiring.

More than a month since I started this course, my well-being has improved significantly. I applied some of the techniques taught (meditation, expressing gratitude, savoring, exercising) and I feel more satisfied with my life compared to how I felt two months ago. I might have discovered what intrinsic happiness means. If you want to be happier, this course will teach you how, and you don't have to wait for your life circumstances to change. You can start being happier today. This course has saved me countless hours that I would have spent reading positive psychology books. The lessons felt informal and intimate, and I've enjoyed every single one. Thank you, professor Santos!

I desperately needed a kickstart to get myself back to being engaged, mentally healthy, and happy. Love this course! If you are depressed or just feeling unmotivated or maybe just a little downtrodden or flat out world weary, this course will prime your mojo! Mom of 3, entrepreneur, writer, 53

Laurie Santos' lectures were delivered with encouragement., rejuvenating so much stuff I had left behind in the vacuum left by the loss of my best friend. The course enervated me to "pick it up", helping me to keep going.